UBS pays $445 million over toxic mortgages and failed US credit unions

Thomson Reuters
(Reuters) - UBS Group AG paid $445 million to settle claims that the Swiss bank sold toxic mortgage securities that helped sink two federal credit unions, a US regulator said on Monday.

The National Credit Union Administration said the payment resolves claims that UBS misled the US Central and Western Corporate credit unions about the risks of roughly $1.15 billion of residential mortgage-backed securities bought in 2006 and 2007.

UBS' payment is on top of $79.3 million it paid last year to resolve similar NCUA claims involving two other failed credit unions. The bank did not admit wrongdoing, the NCUA said.

Erica Chase, a UBS spokeswoman, in an email said: "With today's settlement another legacy matter has been resolved."

The NCUA said it has recovered nearly $4.8 billion from banks over mortgage securities it said led to the 2009 and 2010 failures of five credit unions.

Some lawsuits targeted banks that sold the securities, while others targeted trustees that allegedly failed to monitor loan servicers or require banks to buy back defective loans.

The NCUA said it uses sums it recovers to pay claims against the Constitution Corporate, Members United Corporate, Southwest Corporate, US Central and Western Corporate credit unions.

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Such settlements provide "a measure of accountability for the firms that sold faulty securities," NCUA Acting Board Chairman J Mark McWatters said in a statement.

The NCUA voluntarily dismissed its case against UBS last week in connection with the settlement, court records show.

The case is National Credit Union Administration Board v. UBS Securities LLC et al, US District Court, District of Kansas, No. 12-02591.